Monitoring Southwest drought of China using HJ-1A/B and Landsat remote sensing data

Drought is one major nature disaster in the world. The affected population and agriculture loss caused by drought are the largest in all natural disasters. Drought has the characteristics of wide affected areas, long duration and periodic strong feature. Remote sensing has the advantages of large coverage, frequent observation, repeatable observation, reliable information source and low cost. These advantages make remote sensing a vital contributor for drought disaster monitoring and forecasting. So, remote sensing data have been widely used and delivered significant benefits in drought prevention and reduction in China. Three drought monitor models including Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), Temperature Condition Index (TCI) and Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) had been used to monitor southwest drought occurred in China from 2009 to 2011 based on the small satellite constellation for environment and disaster monitoring and forecasting A/B satellites (HJ-1AB) and Landsat remote sensing data. The results shown that five regions including Sichuan province, Chongqing, Guizhou province, Yunnan province, Guangxi province in southwest of China had suffered different degrees agricultural drought disaster in 2010 and 2011. The comprehensive agricultural disaster situation of five affected areas in 2010 was more serious than drought events occurred in 2011. The many regions in Guizhou province were hardest-hit areas cased by the two consecutive year drought events in southwest China.